Untouchable
by TealEyedBeing
Summary: Ichigo gradually began to devolve from physical contact, growing progressively more distant and strange. Somehow, Chad was the only one he allowed near at the end. What was going on? Warnings/Disclaimer inside, two-shot!


_**Warnings/Disclaimer: **__I own nothing. AU-ish because most of the manga ending is ignored, some mild OOCness, past tense writing and purposeful vagueness. Don't think there's any language or anything else requiring a warning. Another new fic~! I love Chad~ he just keeps slipping into important roles in my stories :3_

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**Untouchable**

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Untouchable is a synonym for safe right? Untouchable meant that he wasn't vulnerable to attack. Yeah, being untouchable was a good thing. Ichigo knew that the word didn't directly mean, "not being able to touch", but he still preferred it that way rather than the arrogant, more commonly known definition of untouchable. The description that Ichigo preferred for untouchable was literal, and he executed it.

It had been a gradual process, undermining years of childhood growth that another's touch wasn't always bad. At first, it was just Ichigo looking mildly annoyed that someone _had_ to touch him in whatever they were doing. Then it slowly evolved over a couple of weeks where he moved out from under their touch when their fingers landed on him. He also began to mumble protests of touching even as someone began to reach out, just in his general direction. His friends thought it was strange, but figured that it may just be some kind of phase and left him alone.

However, Ichigo aversion to physical contact only devolved worse. He protested increasingly louder with each touch, snapping harshly at the person and occasionally even slapping the offending appendage away from his body. He seemed almost defensively angry and slowly people began to withdraw from him as well, wary of his volatile mood. Though, Ichigo did perform normally when they weren't in danger of touching him, so his friends adapted to his new change rather quickly. It was only when that defensive anger slowly morphed into paralyzing fear that people actually began to worry.

Ironically, it had been Orihime who had set off this new strange debilitation. The innocent girl had been traipsing around Seireitei, offering her homemade "treats" to passing shinigami, so happy as she continued her charity that she always failed to notice the gagging crowd she left in her wake. She had been entering the Kuchiki mansion to visit Rukia with her basket of snacks, when she glimpsed Ichigo's orange hair in the gardens. Tiptoeing inside quietly, Orihime had peeked around the tree that the substitute shinigami had been sleeping, slumped against. Worrying in her innocent, naïve nature, the human girl reached out and gently shook Ichigo's shoulder with the intention to wake him so he wouldn't hurt his neck sleeping at that angle.

The orange haired teen's eyes snapped open instantaneously to her touch, and a vicious surge of red tinged black reiatsu erupted around her, forcing Orihime to quickly retreat with a squeal of pain as her hand felt as it had been splashed with scalding water. Her face also felt faintly hot, as if nearly also burned. Cradling her hand to her gifted bosom with alarmed, wide gray eyes, the human girl watched with blind shock as Ichigo stared at her with _terrified _bronze eyes and disappeared in a split millisecond. His shunpo was so fast that Orihime heard a faint buzz of sonido mixed in with the shinigami technique. It was the first sign of Ichigo's Hollow powers in over two years.

Rukia had come streaking out of her family manor, having sensed Ichigo's abrupt flare of panicked reiatsu and having heard Orihime's injured exclamation, frantically asking the wide-eyed human girl inquiries as to what had just happened and where Ichigo had gone, though she could easily trace the frazzled teen's wildly spiking reiatsu blazing a path through Seireitei. Orihime stuttered an explanation and Rukia frowned in foreboding confusion at this insightful message.

Ichigo was later found in the trees out skirting the 47th Rukongai District, curled up in the tight space of two interlocking branches of a thick oak tree, sleeping in the dappled sunlight as if he were a neko momentarily escaping the frenzy of human, or shinigami life. Not daring another episode of what had happened to Orihime, the informed Renji repeatedly shouted up at the inactive orange head, gradually degrading to yelling vulgar insults when Ichigo peacefully slept on, seemingly inept to hearing the red haired shinigami's voice in where his mind had withdrawn into. Renji had given up after an hour, instead choosing to fetch Ichigo's other friends to see if any of them had better luck in rousing the teen.

However, no amount of their yelling seemed to reach Ichigo. Rukia and Orihime were growing increasingly concerned while Ishida and Renji had become progressively more irritated. Just as the hot headed redhead had decided to use Zabimaru to cut Ichigo down from his perch, Chad, the only one who had remained silent through all their shouting, stepped up calmly to the base of the tree. Moving slowly, the others standing quietly behind him, the gentle giant splayed one large hand against the rough bark, tilting his head up to look where he could just see Ichigo's closed eyelids. Chad had never spoken, but Ichigo had then shifted minutely, bronze eyes once more opening to the world after just a minute of the other teen's calm staring.

After he had climbed down, moving fluidly as if he hadn't been crouched in the same position for hours, Ichigo had refused to explain his actions to any of them, using Chad's immobile giant form as a shield between himself and the others. The Mexican teen didn't appear to be bothered by this, instead choosing to remain standing motionless as Ichigo avoided touching him, but still remained close enough that the four others gathered could never fully see the jumpy orange haired substitute shinigami.

After this incident, Ichigo stuck more closely to his longest time friend, never touching still but always within arms reach anyways. The two hardly spoke, and when they did, it was never about the current situation with Ichigo's aversion to contact, but instead about their shared past encounters when they were both still purely human, and fought other normal humans in the normal way. Ichigo refused to sleep anywhere that Chad wasn't, because he trusted the giant to keep any others from touching him as he rested, which he seemed to do more and more often.

Rukia had fetched Unohana-taicho at one of these times to check over Ichigo as he slept, in order to find out what might be "wrong" with him, but no amount of coaxing or threatening from the Kuchiki could get Chad to move from his stationary position before Ichigo's prone, loosely curled body. The gentle giant remained steadfast in his loyalty to Ichigo and silently rebuffed any attempt to get past him. When it appeared that a lot of force might be required just to deter Chad from his bodyguard duty, the Mexican teen had once more somehow silently woken Ichigo and the orange haired teen had fled with a panicked visage.

Rukia had hounded Chad with questions, demanding that he explain what he apparently knew what was going on with Ichigo, but the dark skinned teen never spoke a word, not even a soft grunt of sound escaped his lips. The raven-haired shinigami had stormed away furiously, looking back briefly and momentarily freezing in shock to see that Ichigo had returned so soon to his position on the ground behind Chad. Even as she watched, the orange haired teen _very_ lightly brushed his fingertips over Chad's heel in what anyone could see was gratitude, before Ichigo was once more comatose to the outside world. The giant had only responded by slightly widening his stance, making himself an even more solid barrier. Rukia had shunpoed away to report this newest development that apparently Chad was the only one Ichigo _wanted _around him.

One normal day in Soul Society after a week of that situation was abruptly shattered by the death of gradual devolution when eerily familiar Hollow reiatsu erupted into existence in the Rukongai District that Ichigo and indirectly Chad had apparently made their stationed "home." Rukia, Renji, Orihime, and Ishida had immediately quickly made their way there, only to find that several high ranking shinigami were already there and standing in obvious, blank shock at the sight before them.

Chad was still the first line of defense, only this time his normally liquid brown eyes had hardened into battle-ready pools of ice. Both the teen's arms had morphed into Brazo Derecha de Gigante and Brazo Izquierda del Diablo and the energy sparking angrily from his left hand's fingertips were enough of a warning to keep any shinigami from advancing further. However, Chad was only a fraction of the reason why such intense shock permeated the air.

A human formed Hollow, pure white in all skin, hair, and clothes had Ichigo smothered in its tight embrace. The Hollow lifted its head and glared death towards the onlookers, its irises an unnatural gold against inky black sclera, a smug grin uplifting the corners of the creature's human lips and baring white teeth in a feral smile. Black nailed fingers petted through Ichigo's orange hair, and the substitute shinigami looked _pleased._ Ichigo appeared weary and his reiatsu seemed drained of energy, but the Hollow octopus-ed around him seemed vibrating with it.

Connections were quickly made among the more intelligent minds, and when accusations were thrown about, everyone soon realized what was on display before their eyes. All those times that Ichigo had been seen sleeping, he had been storing and gathering energy to feed his inner Hollow, so that the demon could compress all the raw power and form a physical body outside the teen's head. Somehow, Chad had known this and kept watch over the two while they worked, providing them with the safely kept amount of time they needed to perform this abominable act.

Ichigo, for someone who had resisted physical contact for several months, looked unbelievably content in where he was wrapped tightly in his Hollow's limbs, looked with lazily content eyes towards the angry crowd of shinigami and his friends. Turning away disinterestedly, the substitute shinigami disowned himself from being associated with them and the pale Hollow cackled with triumph, startling all those gathered.

Standing with Ichigo attached to its back, the materialized Hollow sliced a hand through the air, cutting open a Gargantua, the black whirling portal ominously dark against the lush greenery of the forest behind the identical pair. The Hollow stepped forward briefly, its arms tucked under Ichigo's legs but its intention was the orange head's, because Ichigo reached forward with one hand lifted from the albino Hollow's shoulder and gripped the back of Chad's shirt tightly, tugging when the Hollow began to retreat again towards the Gargantua.

Chad's eyes didn't move from his wary watching of the gathered forces, but he stepped backwards in accordance to Ichigo's persistent pulling, allowing himself to be led with faith by his oldest friend and his Hollow counterpart. The group of three passed into the Gargantua easily, and one last victorious eerie laugh was heard from the white abomination before the black gate slammed shut with a screech.

Silence reigned for several seconds, before a roar of outrage and confusion erupted within the Soul Society.

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_Heh, anyone dying with curiosity as to __**what just happened?**__ :3 never fear! I already have the sequel planned from Ichigo's POV and continuation of this fic x3 I'll add it on as another chapter to this fic later so keep watch! :D_

_Nao review pleez!_


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